Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities

Via our public policy guy Michael De Dora, CFI and IHEU deliver a joint statement on freedom of expression to the UN Human Rights Council, emphasizing the crackdown on speech rights in Islamic states.

He's been here a few days now, but yesterday we finally got around to an official welcome to our new development director, he of the unrealistically diverse and intimidating resume, Alan Kinniburgh! Please give him all your money.

Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities

Here's an awesome way to start the week: A British humanist celebrant gives up her kidney for a man she's never met. Her name is Kate Clarkson, and she's my new hero.

“I had been reading about becoming a living donor and I was so moved that day that I decided if I could help, I would. I just thought ‘I’ve got a spare kidney that I don’t even need and people are dying every single day waiting for one.’ So if it was possible, I was going to do it.”

Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities

Today is the big protest in New York City on behalf of Alexander Aan. We have no idea how many folks are showing up, but if you're in the NYC metro area, take your lunch break and show the world that atheism, and freedom of belief generally, should never be a crime. Help me do my job, and tell your local news outlet to cover it. Follow the action on Twitter under the hashtag #FreeAan.

To get a quick catch-up on what it's all about, the latest video edition of Point of Inquiry features a discussion between Chris Mooney and Michael De Dora about Aan's case.

By now it’s clear, I’d say, that the Women in Secularism conference put on by CFI this past May was a milestone event in the secular movement’s history, as it raised consciousness for all in attendance -- men and women -- about all manner of issues affecting women both in and outside the secular and skeptic communities.

Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities

Don't forget, folks. The NYC protest of the imprisonment of Indonesian atheist Alexander Aan is happening this Friday. Here's our press release (picked up by RDF), and here's the Facebook event page so you can coordinate.

So that not-funny guy who somehow gets a lot of work in Hollywood, Rob Schneider, thinks big government is using Nuremberg-like principles to give your kids autism through vaccines. Hey, I know why he's really afraid of vaccines: Because he is, himself, a virus. And what do viruses spend their time doing? Makin' copieeeeees!

Your daily digest of news and links relevant to the secular and skeptic communities

We're putting it in writing. Today CFI announced the introduction of a new policy on hostile conduct and harassment at conferences. CFI's President and CEO Ron Lindsayhas published two blog posts on the topic: a short-and-sweet summation of the policy and its reasoning, and a "tl;dr" version that goes into much more detail.